After the general carnage of March, this month has been a lot more sedate. The return of the sun and generally reduced rainfall have continued. The meadow has grown at a fantastic rate, which means I really need to be on top of machinery maintenance. However, April 2026 was generally relaxed and enjoyable on the farm.
Not covered in this months round up;
- Lots of tidying in preparation for harvest.
- Building contracts are being drawn up.
- Clearing out the drains before a flash storm.
Husbandry
The general wildlife on the farm is really starting to increase in April. The range of bird song has increased, and once again the Jackdaws have moved into some (but not all) of the chimney pots. At the moment, there are a lot of rabbits out and about all day long. There is scattering of tails all over the place when I get home from work. Life is definitely happy here.
Porcine
Both the two gilts and the two boars seem more than happy with their lot. They continue to be boisterous when they think they haven’t had their meals on time, but have become much happier with human contact. They especially love a good rub behind the ears.
They’ve also taken to chilling outdoors in the early evenings and getting in a bit of grazing in the cooler weather. As they grow older and bigger, I had expected they might stop being each other’s shadow, but they continue to be very close. The boys and girls are always found together, and usually sleeping one up against the other.
Apis
As the weather warms up, the bees are starting to wake and emerge from the hive. And just in time too. There are plenty of flowers coming into bloom for them to harvest and turn into honey. The bees coming out are pretty much the last step of spring in my eyes. With the pollinators out, the growing season can really get going.
While they’re still in their winter house, they’ll soon be multiplying, and some extensions will be added to the hive. Although the bees won’t create much honey this year, building up the hive should create robustness against cold weather in the future. And with any luck, the happy bees should expand into new hives, expanding the apiary!
Equipment Maintenance
With all the other distractions over the last few months, and the generally cold and wet weather, equipment maintenance and repair have taken a bit of a back seat. However, as we get closer to cutting season, the priority on repairs and maintenance grow.
Flail Mower
Earlier in the year, I borrowed a Spearhead Q21S flail mower from a close friend. This was his main field-mowing machine, but his field has been landscaped to such an extent that a tractor can no longer be used.
Generally, the mower is in good condition for its age, but it was long overdue for a little maintenance. The prop shaft had detonated last time it was used, so the UJ’s had to be rebuilt. This was done over the winter. The various guards were also falling apart due to vibration and needed some fettling, now the weather had improved.
The upper guard over the intermediary prop shaft was in by far the worst condition. It had clearly been welded up in the past, but the frequency of vibration from the unbalanced flail shaft had fractured the metal. This was likely not helped by missing bolts!
A couple of heavy tacks were laid down to hold the fractured pieces together, before being fully seamed. I did consider doing all the welds from the inside to give a neater finish, but I don’t doubt that this cover will vibrate itself to pieces soon enough.
A couple of coats of JCB yellow enamel later, and that should get us through a few more seasons. While not the prettiest finish, at least it should hold back any more damage and seriously quieten the machine when operated.
The belt guard also needed some minor welding repairs, though these seemed to be more due to impacts than vibration. Unfortunately, I’m not always the most attentive when parking, especially when trying to park up the mower in long grass between other implements!
While I was at it, the gearbox oil was checked, all the grease nipples were given a few pumps and the missing bolts in the cover were replaced. I guess they had been missing for a long time, as the holes had filled with sludge and had to be retapped to get a bolt in!
Testing out the flail mower repairs
After getting the mower back together, it needed a bit of a test run. Mounted on the tractor and spun up in the yard, it seemed to perform well, so the implement was put into action.
While a fairly minor job, getting control of the brambles, grass and other weeds up the side of the veg patch was made very easy with the flail mower. The repairs have made the machine much quieter, but there still seems to be excessive vibration. There are no missing flails, but this will be one to investigate in the future.
Construction
While seldom mentioned so far, the main farmhouse needs some significant renovation, and we seem to be getting ever closer to starting the building work. I’m not sure how this will be documented, a video blog would be my preference, but that’s a fair bit of work that I probably don’t have time for.
Before the builders can really start, there is a lot of prep work that is needed, fortunately, this is mostly destruction, and it is far easier to find volunteers for demo than build!
First Aid Station
While the first aid station might seem like a curious place to start, the farm help point has been in the farmhouse since we arrived. Once the building starts, this won’t be accessible, and I’m keen to keep the supplies accessible 24/7 and not locked away.
This is likely to be built up some more over time, but this is the start. Stop-and-go for fires, a general first-aid kit and an eyewash station, all at the back of a shed, and easily accessible. The kit is also mounted low enough that both the kids can reach it if they’re sent to fetch it. The mirrored cupboard also has some serious trauma dressings for no reason whatsoever.
Farmhouse Demo
Demolition in the farmhouse has focused on exposing architectural or structural points of interest, to estimate the future work that will be needed. Things like exposing beams, stripping back wall coverings and removing miles of unused wiring.
I also had a bit of a proud dad moment, when Mr Demo asked how he could help and I set him off to remove this little stud wall. I came back a few minutes later expecting the task would keep him busy for an hour, and he’d managed to knock down the whole wall with little more than a lever. That’s the application of force, lever and maths! Good lad.
Grass Harvest
I never imagined I would be so excited about grass. Don’t get me wrong, I started mowing lawns at around 10 years old and had some interest in lawn health (The Lawn Expert by D G Hessayon is an excellent read). However, the majesty of bringing in a grass crop is something I really enjoy.
While the crop might not look like much right now, a few more months and some good weather, and we should be bringing in some high-quality bales. Before the first cut, the giant game of balancing the weather, prepping the machinery, and manually weeding all needs to take place!
Coming up
In the future, I plan to spin some of the grassland topics off into their own articles, as there is much more preparation work needed this year than last, which should make for some interesting stand-alone pieces.
We’re also getting much closer to starting the building work, with only a couple of suppliers left in the game. Some clarifications and alignments to the specification, and we should be able to sign contracts!